


Chasing Ghosts

by DoctorPeggy



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canonical Character Death, Detective!Kaito, Diverges from canon much before the original stories technically start, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Phantom Thief!Shinichi, Roleswap AU, Well Shinichi is still a detective at heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29438082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorPeggy/pseuds/DoctorPeggy
Summary: When the police refuse to believe his father has been murdered, Kuroba Kaito decides he must search for the proof himself, no matter how long it takes him.Across the city, Kudou Shinichi investigates the disappearance of Kaitou KID, and falls a little deeper into the case than he is anticipating to.AU
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	Chasing Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Explicit character death (canonical and not depicted, but it's mentioned pretty clearly).

Something’s not right. The police are explaining to his mother that it was an accident, but Kaito thinks they’re wrong. Because it can’t be, Kaito knows his father’s show backwards and forwards, and this—this is not how it’s supposed to go. He’s seen his father get out of chains like that in less than three seconds. This time he had a whole _thirty_.

His stomach churns. His father is not—was not—that careless. There _must be_ some mistake. His father can’t just be _gone_ like this.

“I’m sorry Kaito,” his mother sobs quietly when he tells her this, and Kaito feels completely helpless. He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand why they’re all saying his father made a mistake. If he can just prove it…

Then what? Will that make his father come back?

For the first time in three hours, Kaito really and truly realizes what it means when they say Kuroba Toichi is dead.

He throws up on the tarmac, and then cries till his throat hurts.

Because this isn’t real. This isn’t real. Something is horribly wrong.

Before they go, the police give Kaito and his mother their condolences one last time, and Kaito is gripped with an overwhelming urge stop them. There is this feeling in his stomach, a feeling that maybe the police don’t quite understand what has happened.

A memory from two hours ago flashes across his mind.

“I saw a man in a black suit before the show!” Kaito yells after the officers as they start to leave. The police detectives only look at him sadly. They tell him, that just because there was someone is wearing black doesn’t mean they’re a bad person. They tell him accidents can happen to anyone. They tell him even his father could make mistakes.

“No!” Kaito insists, “he never makes mistakes like that, he—”

“I’m really sorry, Kaito-kun,” a kind-face police officer cuts in gently, “but your father is really gone. I know it’s really scary, but it’s going to be okay.”

“I _know_ he’s gone!” Kaito tries desperately, for a moment too caught up in the feeling of wrongness to realize what he’s saying, “but it wasn’t an accident! You’re making a mistake! There was this man, and he looked really weird and scary, and like he wasn’t even here for the show and—”

 _He must have done something_ , he almost says, but that… that can’t be right either. Because even at eight years old, Kaito knows that sounds too much like it’s _murder_. And murders don’t happen to people like Kaito’s father.

He sees some officers turn away, eyebrows creased, hands covering their mouths.

His mother picks him up.

“Let’s go home, Kaito,” she breathes into his ear as new tears start to fall from his eyes.

“It wasn’t an accident,” he mumbles into his mother’s shoulder. If she hears him, she does not say anything.

When he goes to bed that night, body tired from grief and eyes heavy from crying, the feeling in his stomach still isn’t gone. Someone had made a mistake this morning, and Kaito is sure it wasn’t his father. He tosses, kicking the wall even though his mother has told him many times that he’s not supposed to. He clutches his pillow to his face and screams.

There was no accident. Kaito just knows there couldn’t have been. He’s not sure what it means if someone _made_ the accident happen, but finding out scares him less than the idea of letting it go. Because Kaito is right. Something had gone horribly wrong that day, and it had to do with that strange man in the black suit and the black hat.

And if the police detectives aren’t going to believe him, then Kaito will have to prove it himself.

He decides then that he’s going to become a detective. He’s going to become a detective, and solve the case of his father’s murder.

* * *

When he reads about Kuroba Toichi’s death in the newspaper, the strangest feeling crawls up Shinichi’s spine, like he’s met the man before. He turns to his father.

“He was a friend of mine,” his father answers, eyes unreadable, even before Shinichi can ask.

There’s something about his tone that seems… off.

“Tou-san, was it really an accident?” Shinichi hazards.

There is a pause.

“Don’t ask stupid questions Shinichi, of course it was.”

Shinichi frowns. He’s not a detective yet, but even he can tell that his father’s words and the expression on his face don’t match.

“I didn’t know you were friends with a magician,” he forges on, hoping for some clues. His father just smiles a little ruefully.

“We were more like friendly rivals, really”

“Rivals?”

“Well, it doesn’t matter anyhow,” he sighs, before turning to Shinichi with a stern look, “now stop asking questions and eat your eggs.”

Shinichi opens his mouth to argue, but his father’s expression says Shinichi’s not going to get any more answers, so he stops himself.

_Rivals_ , he thinks, rolling the word around on his tongue.

He goes his mother next.

“Kuroba Toichi?” she repeats when Shinichi asks her, sounding almost surprised.

Shinichi nods.

“Well, he was a magician, and a very good one at that. Some people said he was even better than the Kaitou KID.”

Shinichi latches onto the new piece of information.

“Who’s Kaitou KID?”

His mother’s lips twitch downwards slightly, like she’s realized something, but then she smiles and ruffles his hair.

 _She knows something_ Shinichi thinks, _something she doesn’t want to tell me._

“Playing detective, are we?” she teases, hands moving down to pull his cheeks.

Shinichi knows this is a ploy to distract him to get him to stop asking questions, but he wriggles out of her grasp like she expects him to anyway, because he’s _not a baby anymore, come on, Kaa-san,_ and runs to go find Professor Agasa, slamming the main door behind him.

The pieces finally start to come together when he asks the Professor about it.

“Kaitou KID, huh?” he says, rubbing his chin, “Well, he was a jewel thief. Some even said he was the best jewel thief to have ever existed.”

“Why is he called KID?”

“That’s because of your father, actually.”

His father? Why has Shinichi never heard of this before?

“Tou-san?”

“They were rivals, you know?”

 _Rivals._ There it is again. But his father had said that about… Kuroba Toichi?

“How did my father name Kaitou KID?” Shinichi asks, and the Professor tells him the story, oblivious to the cogs turning in Shinichi’s mind. 

Shinichi comes back home in time for lunch, but his father isn’t there.

“He went out for a walk,” his mother supplies, and if she knows anything more than that, she doesn’t let on. Shinichi figures something is up, but lets it go. He’s got his own investigation now.

The next day, he goes to the library and reads everything he can get his hands on about Kuroba Toichi and Kaitou KID. He has two or three working theories, but he needs more information.

Ran, who has tagged along, asks him what he’s doing. He thinks for a second, before turning to her.

“I’m trying find a phantom thief,” he declares.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you liked this work and would want to see original writing, WIPs and other silly things from me, I have a tumblr: https://doctor-peggy.tumblr.com/
> 
> Also, feel free to comment if you have something to say about the story! I'd love to hear your thoughts.


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